


All Ahead Bendix

by phalangine



Category: Black Sails
Genre: Alternate Universe - Sentinels and Guides Are Known, F/M, M/M, Multi, Sentinel/Guide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-28
Updated: 2016-09-28
Packaged: 2018-08-18 06:50:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8152879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phalangine/pseuds/phalangine
Summary: A quick series of takes on Black Sails if it were set in the Sentinel/Guide 'verse.





	

Miranda Barlow and Thomas Hamilton's marriage was always an odd one. Relationships between people with the same manifestation rarely work out happily- guides have an inherent need to shepherd the people in their lives, as sentinels have a natural drive to protect their loved ones. Thus, pairs with the same manifestation more often than not end up subconsciously trying to outdo each other. Yet Miranda and Thomas only ever seemed happy.

It was here that the rumors first began to circle.

She was having affairs with sentinels. He, the poor cuckold, knew but was too much the understanding guide to stand up to her.

He was considering divorcing her.

His father was going to intervene.

Nothing ever came of the whispered fantasies. Miranda and Thomas remained soundly married, appeared happily at the right social events, and, when the time came, took in a lost sentinel.

This was where the scandal that would break them apart took root. The outsiders' understanding of what happened in the Hamilton house was based on a falsehood, but the effect was the same.

But before their fall, Miranda, Thomas, and James were happy.

 

**_xx_ **

 

"You like him."

Thomas doesn't look up from his book, but his ears give him away, the tips pinking as he stares at the page. Miranda has known about her husband's preferences since before they were married; she can hardly blame him for falling for the lieutenant. She has as well, after all.

Sliding into bed, she carefully takes the book from Thomas' hands and puts it aside. "He's very sweet, isn't he?" she prompts. "So uptight, yet so very new. Like a nervous puppy."

With a roll of his eyes, Thomas loses the thread of tension that had crept into him. "I doubt he would appreciate that comparison."

"Then you'll just have to refrain from telling him, won't you?"

"Why should I?"

"Thomas Hamilton, are you jealous?" Miranda puts a hand over her heart and a pout on her lips. "He is already most devoted to you, you know," she adds, sobering. "I doubt even he realizes the depths of it."

"He got into a fight defending your honor," Thomas reminds her softly.

"And yours," she counters. Sliding closer, she takes her husband's hands in hers. "Don't give up hope, Thomas. He is our sentinel. He must be."

It takes him a moment, but eventually, Thomas sighs. "I know. It's just... difficult. To spend so much time with him and not let him see is agony. Yet I dread the moment he realizes. What if he hates us?"

"He couldn't!"

"But what if-"

"Thomas."

"Yes?"

"I am a good judge of character, am I not?" He nods. "Then let me promise you: so long as we are careful motto spook him, he will see reason. He _is_ our sentinel, and we _are_ his guides. So take heart, husband. We will have our missing part soon enough."

Thomas nods reluctantly, but Miranda can see that her words have had an impact.

_Good._

The last thing she needs is for Thomas to give into his fears and sabotage them. She can protect him from society, but he has to let her.

 

**_xx_ **

 

The first time James fucks Miranda Barlow, they are in a carriage. She's hot and wet and clings to his shoulders, and she smells like expensive perfume. For a moment, James can almost forget her husband.

The second time he fucks her, they are in his rooms, and she lays a hand over his mouth and whispers, "I am your guide. There is no shame." She draws him into a hot kiss, and James almost forgets the way Thomas looked at him when he spoke of strange pairs.

 

The first time he kisses Thomas Hamilton, James is still furious at the man's father, but that isn't what makes him shake when Thomas draws too close for friendship. It isn't rage that makes his heart hammer when Thomas presses the chastest of kisses to his lips.

"I always knew," Thomas tells him, voice gentle, as if he were speaking to a wild animal. "About you and Miranda, I knew. She felt you would be more comfortable if you knew her first."

From the other side of the table, Miranda nods. "As I said, Lieutenant. There is no shame."

James doesn't know what to do with any of this, and he's relieved when Miranda gets up and comes to his side.

"Come along, McGraw," she coaxes, taking one of his hands. Thomas, taking his cue, does the same with the other. "Let us show you what it's like when a sentinel is truly guided."

And they do. In their bed, they take James apart, then build him up, only to break him once more. When they finally finish with him, it's all he can do not to fall asleep right away. They don't let him leave even then- they must know he doesn't want to go, not really. Miranda and Thomas snuggle close, each wrapping a keg around one of his so when they fall asleep, it's him in the middle, with two warm bodies weighing him down. For the first time since his sentinel senses became active, James sleeps soundly through the night.

 

**_xx_ **

 

After their relationship is profaned by Lord Hamilton, after it is dragged through the mud so thoroughly even the man who was like a father to him can't stand to look at his face, James and Miranda lean on each other harder than ever. He can't be with her often, so when he can, he tries to make the most of it. Even with the Navy's training, his control over his heightened sentinel senses begins to devolve when he's at sea. He needs her to talk him down, remind him what reality looks and sounds and smells and tastes and feels like.

It isn't the same without Thomas. The two of them were such a match, it only took a word from him to bring James out of a spell. A simple touch to reassert reality even in the midst of sex, when any touch ought to have driven James deeper toward the madness, Thomas would do something as simple as flicking his ear, and James would find his way back.

With Miranda, returning is harder, though whether that's because they are less of a match or because the loss of Thomas damaged them, James couldn't say.

He does his best best to please her, but even that is not enough. She is an exile here, isolated and ridiculed. The "witch". No guide should endure that. They are social creatures, far more than sentinels and the non-manifested. She deserves better, and when an opportunity to bring her back into society appears in the form of Abigail Ashe, James' guilt at keeping her locked away overrides his common sense.

Of course Ashe would never support their cause.

How did James never put together the timing of their fall with his rise to prominence?

 

**_xx_ **

 

Silver likes baths. More than that, he likes Flint to take baths. After weeks, months, at sea or on the island, he claims the smell is too terrible to bear and drags Flint to a hotel where he orders that Flint take one. It began innocently enough, but now...

Now, despite being the taller of them, Flint is sitting a bath with his back to Silver's chest and one of Silver's hands around his cock.

"Repeat after me," Silver murmurs, drawing his hand up Flint's shaft as he does. "I, Flint."

"Fuck you," Flint grits.

"I, Flint."

"No."

Silver sighs. "If you promise not to be so damn reckless, I'll get you off for real."

As if to make his point, he brings up his free hand and rolls one of Flint's nipples.

"Fuck- You're a shit, you know that?"

"Promise me."

"Fine, I promise! Now will you get on with it?"

"Somehow," Silver drawls, "I don't find that convincing. But you were reasonable in the meeting with Madi and the Queen, so I'm feeling indulgent."

Finally, finally, he jerks Flint in earnest, cold nose nuzzling at Flint's jaw to keep him from getting spellbound on one sensation. Flint spreads his legs and pushes into Silver's slick grip; he can feel the hard line of his quartermaster's erection at his back. A shiver runs down his spine unrelated to what Silver is doing to him.

Flint isn't alone. Not on the ship, and not in this.

When he comes, he instinctively grabs for the hand on his chest. It makes Silver hiss, but the man returns Flint's grip nonetheless. Water sloshes over the side of the tub as Flint collapses breathlessly back into the water.

"I'll take care of you in a minute," he pants.

Silver coughs. "That, ah, won't be necessary."

"Don't be stupid. Of course it- You didn't."

"Fuck off."

"You got off on that all on your own," Flint reminds him. "If it's any consolation, it's rather cute."

"I hate you."

Flint hums his acknowledgement, and Silver deflates.

"I really would appreciate it if you wouldn't die," he mutters. "I've grown rather attached to you, though I can't fathom why. It would be unfortunate if I were to lose you. The men would insist on having a feast, and I think we both know I don't know nearly enough about food to organize one."

Flint shakes his head, belatedly realizing he still has a crushing grip on Silver's hand. A rush of emotion washes over him as he lets go, and in a moment sentimentality, he threads his fingers through Silver's.

"I'm not going anywhere," he promises. "If you'll recall the pattern, you're the one who ought to be careful."

"Did I not already tell you I'm going to break your damn pattern?" Silver grouches. "And would you get up? The water's going cold."

Flint does get up, and he bears with the fussing as he picks Silver up and carries him to the bed with the certainty of experience. The moment he's free, Silver wriggles up and back until he reaches the headboard. Then he throws Flint a wink, grabs all the blankets, and wraps them around himself. "Don't just stand there and stare," he grouches when Flint fails to join him immediately. "I can't sleep if you're looming like that."

_"Half a man",_ Flint thinks with a snort. Dufresne was a fool.

**Author's Note:**

> This started out with the purest of intentions. I don't know how or why it devolved into what it did... Someday I might actually write a proper fic for this series. Today is not that day.


End file.
